About Us

Who We Are

In 2010 Raul Ballester '11 and Sean Cooney '12, undergraduate students in the Andreas School of Business, designed, developed and submitted a proposal for a Student Managed Investment Fund

SMIF was officially launched in the fall of 2011

As described in the Founding Proposal, the emphasis of the fund is that it is student managed

Investment Philosophy

The fundamental premise on which the SMIF investment philosophy is based is that prices for asset classes and individual securities may deviate over short horizons from their fundamental values due to a variety of factors. We believe opportunities exist to find improperly valued asset classes and securities due to this phenomenon. The SMIF employs internal research, including quantitative models and techniques, as well as qualitative judgments and external research designed to identify these asset classes and securities that are undervalued, yet continue to exhibit strong long-term fundamentals. With a disciplined implementation of our valuation model and market analyses, the SMIF strategy seeks to reap rewards beyond those of passive benchmarks without incurring more risk.

Furthermore, the SMIF believes remaining ahead of the technological curve ensures its competitiveness and analytical edge. Technology remains at the heart of the investment profession, and continually embracing newer technologies allows the SMIF to perform its operations and duties to the endowment fund in an easier, more efficient and accurate manner.

The fundamental purposes of the SMIF are to provide clear expectations regarding investment strategies; to generate a return in order to support the operating expenses and capital expenditures by both the SMIF and Barry University; to contribute to community well-being by providing financial literacy programs; and to add to the overall growth of the Barry University Endowment Fund. SMIF will conduct its business at the highest, ethical, and professional standards, including Dominican criteria per socially responsible investing and Ethical, Social and Governance Criteria (ESG) standards.